One of the most important things that you will do in a Joomla powered website is to add new content. This tutorial will explain how to create a Joomla Article from the front end.

Many sites have a User Menu with several options about things users might want to do. (It is not always called a User Menu - it depends on the site!). One of the common options is to Submit an Article (Sometimes called Create an Article).

Step 1 - Login to Joomla website front-end

First we assume that you are a registered user with at least author role which allows you to create an article at front-end. Find the login form on your website and enter your user name and password.

Joomla Login

Once you have logged into your website a second menu list will appear called the User Menu.

Joomla User Menu

Click on the "Submit an Article" link in the User Menu

You will be taken to a new page entitled "Submit an Article”. A screen shot of this page is shown below.

Submit a Joomla Article - front end

Step 2 - Adding title for your article

Click on the box to the right of the title section and enter a title for your article. For better rankings in search engines make sure your title is relevant to your article. There is no need to fill in the alias field. This will automatically be updated to whatever your articles title is when you save your article.

Step 3 - Adding content

Now write your article in the editor provided.

Step 4 - add Images or Pagebreak or Read more (optional)

After you have finished your article and selected an appropriate title you will notice several options below the editor. The first of these options is a set of four buttons.

Buttons below a Joomla Article Editor

The Image button is used to insert images into your article. Pressing the button will open a pop up window from which you will be able to access or upload images. This feature is also included with most editors.

The Pagebreak button, when pressed, will break your article into multiple pages where your cursor is located in the article. This is extremely useful when you have long articles. To insert multiple pages simply place your cursor in each location you would like to create a new page and press the Pagebreak button. This process may vary slightly depending on the article editor you are using.

Another option is to insert a Read more break. By inserting a Read more break the article will only be shown up to the read me break. If a reader wants to view more of the article they will have to press the read me button and then the rest of the article will appear.

The fourth option is to toggle between the text editors that you have installed. By default your Joomla will be installed with TinyMCE and No Text Editor.

Step 5 - Description and keywords

We are almost done with our article creation but we have a couple more important steps left, the description and keywords text boxes.

Write a short description of your article, make sure to keep it simple and use your keywords. Then insert your keywords into the last text box. make sure they are keywords that were used in your article, preferably more than twice.

Step 6 - Publish your article

Next comes the publishing options. In this section you will have to decide which section and category you want your article to appear in by selecting the appropriate drop down menus. You cannot add or change any of the sections or categories from this point that must be done from the admin section of the Joomla website.

Publishing options for Joomla Article

You can also select if you want your article to be published or not. depending on your user permissions you may have to wait for approval before your article goes live on your website. You also have the option of placing you article on the front page of your website. By default all new articles show up at the top of the pages in which they are inserted. The other option here is to insert an author alias instead of your username.

The next three options allow some flexibility in your publishing. You can in this section choose a start and finish date for a particular post. This allows you to write articles in advance of release dates and pull articles once they are outdated without having to remember to login and do it yourself. The last option is if you would like to make this article available to the public (anyone who comes on your site), registered (anyone who is logged into your site), or special (only available to advanced users such as yourself if you are writing articles for your site) users.

Step 7 - Save your article

The last step is saving your article. If you are an Author, note that you will not be able to return to this page after it is saved. To prevent loss of work during composition, it is recommended that you compose your work in an offline word processor and cut and paste it into the editing box.

You will notice at the top of your article to the right of the title box you have the option of saving and canceling your article. press the save button. You will see a note indicating that the article has been saved.

This is a great tutorial on how to create an article on Joomla. I have an interview tips website that is hosted on a WordPress blog and i am thinking of switching to Joomla. Thanks, as this information is very helpful for me.